UConn is amazing and good for women’s basketball, but …
The UConn women’s basketball team won again Sunday afternoon, taking out Oregon State 80-51 in one of the closer games of its season.
The Huskies will play Syracuse on Tuesday night, in a title game they will win, likely by more than 20, because that’s what happens.
This is great for UConn, because to maintain that level of excellence is incredible, and winning four straight NCAA titles is something we should not only applaud, but put among the great college sports achievements of all time. That’s not even considering the 74 straight wins.
It’s also good for women’s college basketball, because when you have a team this good, the rest of the country has to find ways to get better and reach that level. Eventually someone will, and they’ll bring someone else along, and you could start to have some legitimate rivalries.
But here’s the problem, at the moment there is no rival to UConn. Nobody is particularly close, actually. Notre Dame is the program most would put directly behind the Huskies, but even they lost by 10 when the two teams met earlier this season.
That’s not to say there isn’t parity in women’s college basketball. There’s actually plenty of it -- behind UConn. Notre Dame and South Carolina each were upset in the Sweet 16. UConn was the only 1 seed that made it to the Final Four. This is good, because it means the pool -- behind UConn -- is getting deeper.
This, though, is inadvertently making the problem worse. The problem, if you want to call it that, and with any other sport we would, is that casual sports fans aren’t going to tune in. Why? Because we know the outcome.
Yes, you can watch UConn and appreciate their ridiculous ball movement, relentless defense and immense talent. If you appreciate those types of things. A lot of people don’t. Most people appreciate drama in sports -- will Serena Williams, who was dominant, win all four majors? Will the Warriors, who are dominant, break the Bulls record, and can they even beat the Spurs? Can Tiger Woods, who was dominant, catch Jack Nicklaus? In each of those cases, historic records we are familiar with were being chased, and there were worthy adversaries along the way, who had a chance to win.
Sports fans also love dynasties, not because they continually crush the opposition, but because those of us who don’t root for that dynasty want to see who can knock them off. With UConn, the perception -- which in this case could very well also be the reality -- is that nobody can. Not only that, nobody can come close.
Dynasties are the evil empire in many minds, and in the case of UConn women’s basketball, the Empire just keeps firing up its death star and destroying planets. There’s no Luke Skywalker to come save the day. Most people don’t want to watch that movie.
UConn is worthy of the utmost admiration, and blaming the Huskies for being too dominant is silly. But not recognizing that their level of dominance has also stepped over the line of entertaining and into predictable is nearly as silly.
Three Things to Read Today
The early years of Izzo at MSU
You can read details on Izzo’s reported Hall of Fame selection below, but there were days in East Lansing when that idea was less realistic than the football team being a national power. (Man, times are good in EL) Izzo’s early years were full of doubt, poor results and eternal
Baseball. Is. Back.
Three games kicked off the season last night, but today is a great day to waste time at work reading through a bunch of MLB season predictions. Here’s USA Today, ESPN, SI, SB Nation and CBS Sports.
BIG TROPHY TO BE GIVEN OUT TONIGHT
North Carolina and Villanova square off tonight for the national championship. Previews are dumb and all the same. What you need to read first and foremost about this game is how a player on Villanova was adopted by the family of a player on North Carolina when they were in middle school.But here’s a preview. Here’s another preview. And another.
Headlines
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NBA Scoreboard
New Orleans 106
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Brooklyn 87
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Cleveland 112
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Charlotte 103
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Houston 118
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Oklahoma City 110
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Dallas 88
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Minnesota 78
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LA Clippers 114
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Washington 109
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Orlando 119
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Memphis 107
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Utah 101
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Phoenix 86
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Chicago 102
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Milwaukee 98
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Indiana 92
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NY Knicks 87
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Golden State 136
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Portland 111
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Boston 107
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LA Lakers 100
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NHL Scoreboard
Chicago 6
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Boston 4
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Pittsburgh 6
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Philadelphia 2
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St. Louis 5
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Colorado 1
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Winnipeg 5
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Minnesota 1
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Dallas 1
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Anaheim 3
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MLB Scoreboard
Toronto 5
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Tampa Bay 3
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Pittsburgh 4
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St. Louis 1
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Kansas City 4
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NY Mets 3
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